Core77's Design DirectoryIn cooperation withBloombergBusinessweek

Which form factor will "win," or is there room for them all?

It's not often that we get to see a new form factor evolve before our eyes, but with the impending release of the Apple Watch, it's happening. We're not talking about the watch itself; design intricacies aside, its overall form factor is the same as for all wristwatches. We're talking

The Beam smart projector fits any light socket—and can make any surface interactive through if-this-then-that rules.

“What if we could make a projector that you could screw into a light socket?” That was the question posed during one of Oak & Morrow’s brainstorming sessions back in March 2014. Now, exactly one year later, the Netherlands-based design studio is funding the device, called Beam, on Kickstarter—and as

Many of my organizing clients have multiple mobile devices, and they get concerned about the space it takes to charge all those devices. No one likes a mess of cords on the kitchen countertop, the nightstand, the floor, etc.For those who only have a couple phones (or perhaps an iPod),...

Many people are happy to use their smartphones as their alarm clocks, but that won't work for everyone. Some users don't have smartphones—or are minimally tech-proficient and only know how to use them for limited purposes. Others choose to follow the advice of sleep researchers and feng shui consultants and keep all screens out of the bedroom. And others simply find a physical alarm clock easier to deal with when waking up than a smartphone.

The trick is to use a transparent OLED over the face

Billing their product as the "world's first and only mechanical smart watch hybrid," Kairos Watches has set the expectations bar high. Especially considering their watches haven't launched; they're taking pre-orders, but still working out the tech.

Creators Made by Many give us an insight on an epic 2-year design process

We've had an eye on the "Hackaball" project by London based agency Made by Many since we heard wind early last year. What started out as a brief for two talented incoming interns, slowly grew legs and spiraled into a learning project that saw the studio stepping back from the

Piet Hein Eek’s latest product line—a pair of sleek metal clocks and a matching speaker for the brand LEFF Amsterdam—looks like a departure for the Dutch designer, known for his chunky, rough-hewn wooden furniture. But the Tube Series was very much an Eek project.

Purveyors of web-based procrastination-enablers Adult Swim have been treating online audiences to a series of ingenious infomercial parodies in recent months—from feature-creeping Broomshakalaka to the frankly pornographic Salad Mixxxer. The latest spoof from the series takes aim at the sitting duck of the connected/quantified/smart home/health/self start-up world—mocking the various absurdities...

Photo: Rainy Day Magazine
Photo: Rainy Day MagazineProfessional organizers will tell you that any papers with confidential information should either be shredded or taken to a shredding service (or perhaps composted). Shredders come in varying capacities; I'm going to focus on those intended for personal or small office/home office use.The Bridge...

Chances are if you're a designer, artist, musician or use a computer daily, you have encountered that fateful moment when your mouse keeps you from making that perfect color selection or nudging a layer into exact position with Photoshop. While most computer aided drawing and modeling programs account for clumsy...

L: The Fluidigm Juno, designed by fuseproject; R: Quirky+GE's "Tripper" sensorAs an editor at Core77, I often find myself attempting to explain what industrial design is, and I'm sure those of you who are actually practicing designers often find yourselves in find yourselves in the same position. It's regrettable that...

The iPhone 6 and Apple Watch double launch may have put some minds at rest, but Apple is undeniably still struggling to shake off lingering pessimism regarding its future—countless column inches having been dedicated to assessments of the company's mojo and conclusions on whether it can be regained in a...

Earlier today, connected device guru Matt Webb announced the closure of cloud service developer Berg Cloud in a blogpost, citing difficulties in finding a sustainable business model for the innovative venture since moving away from the agency model back in 2013. Conceived after experiencing the difficulties of making connected products...

Only in Japan could the worlds of novelty plastic consumer goods, fast-food fanaticism and brand worship collide in such awe-inspiring, object-cultural absurdity.The Japanese arm of fast food giant KFC recently released a suite of computing accessories in the likeness of their deep fried product. Whilst the Colonel hasn't yet taken...

Being an organized traveller involves packing just the right stuff—and for most end users, that involves electronics. After deciding which devices to take (laptop, tablet, smartphone, etc.) the end-user also needs to decide how to keep them charged. If the travel is international, that often means packing one or more...

A number of my clients now collect compostable materials, either for their own outdoor composting, or for city curbside collection bins. While a home recycling station might include a compost collection section, that's far from the only way to go.If you're designing a kitchen, you may want to consider having...

There's nothing inviting about a surveillance camera. Closed-circuit cameras invariably raise the question of security at what cost, and while the devices are pivotal to many movies, I'm more reminded of that tape scene in The Grudge that I always watch from behind my fingers. Italian designer Eleonora Trevisanutto gives...

HTC launched the new HTC One (M8) to great fanfare in central London yesterday, its new DotView case stealing much of the show. Core77 UK correspondent Sam Dunne caught up with VP of Design Scott Croyle to talk industrial design on the front-line.With the keynotes out of the way and...

Everyone loves to back a winner. Eone Time brought the Bradley Timepiece to Kickstarter and the people of Kickstarter backed it to the moon and, uh, back. This slick watch was developed by Hyungsoo Kim, inspired by the surprisingly limited watch options for people with impaired vision and aided by...

It's blatantly obvious that today's attitude toward technology is very much "right here, right now." In an attempt to reorient a user's relationship to their consumer electronics, The Consortium for Slower Internet—a website focused on giving a deeper look into computation spaces and all of the different communication methods around...

It looks like Aramique Krauthamer has been keeping busy since we visited Nike's "Art and Science of Feeling" pop-up experience last month. We encountered the NYC-based installation/interaction designer at the opening of "PLAY: A Visual Music Experience," the latest installation that he's designed with Fake Love for his ongoing collaboration...

CES being what it is, there were of course numerous displays of techno-wizardry; and the business world being what it is, most of the new businesses built around these technologies will fail, while a few will thrive. Here's a few we'd like to see make the cut.We know that the...

Hidden hearing by CynapsHidden hearing by CynapsIf everything at CES actually worked (i.e., no concepts) and you won one of those grab-whatever-you-can-in-fifteen-minutes shopping sprees, what would you snag? We've worked out a short list:The Cynaps Bone Conduction Bluetooth Headset is the perfect way to take noisy calls on a crowded...

Judging by the large amount of small, wheeled, floor-mounted robots we mostly saw coming from Asian manufacturers, manually cleaning spaces in Asia will be a thing of the past. While iRobot is a well-known name in the 'States, in China it's Xrobot (see their machines up top, as well as...

3D Systems seemed to be the only 3D printing company out in force at CES, perhaps because it was at last years' that they debuted their Cube 3D Printer. This year they pulled the sheets off of not one, but two machines: Their updated Cube 2, a faster and more...

Once Nexiom had refined their wicked Power Slate ultra-slim battery, they needed some industrial designers to refine the product it would be a part of. After a successful Coroflot search that product is now ready: The AMPT Smart Bag is a sort of messenger bag/backpack hybrid capable of charging many...